‘No one questioned a Nawab family heir’

The man who pretended to be the grandson of Nawab Salimullah Khan, joined Muslim League in 2018. As proof of identity, he submitted his passport and national identity (NID) card, in which his name was Nawab Khawaja Ali Hasan Askari.

As Muslim League was founded by Salimullah Khan, no one objected to his joining, Hazi Abdul Khayer, secretary general of Muslim League, told The Daily Star yesterday.

In reply to a query about giving nomination to Hasan for a by-election and not verifying his identity, Abdul Khayer said they did not scrutinise further after Hasan submitted his NID card.

"We did not even hesitate to give him nomination for the last Dhaka-10 by-election, as a member of the royal family showed interest to contest in the polls," he explained.

Muslim League has been registered with Election Commission (EC) since 2008.

Towhidul Islam, additional deputy commissioner (ADC) of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit, however, said they would write to the EC, seeking information about the political party and investigate how Hasan got a chance to take part in the election.

"We suspect that some members of the political party might have been involved with Hasan. We are analysing activities of some of their activists," he said.

Meanwhile, two more cases were filed against Hasan and his wife Merina Akter in Dhaka and Chuadanga yesterday. The complaints stated that Hasan took Tk 17 lakh and Tk 14 lakh on different instances, promising to provide jobs.

"We are coordinating with local police regarding the two latest cases," ADC Towhidul said.

He further said that after analysing the documents, they came to know that Hasan married Merina in 2014, but he created a false document, which showed that they married in 2004.

Rashed alias Rahmat Ali alias Raja, one of Hasan's associates who gave confessional statement before a Dhaka court on Monday, said he was working with Hasan for the last four years, for a salary of Tk 10,000.

Promising jobs at a hospital in Singapore, Hasan would ask for Tk 70,000 from each person, and his associates collected money from 113 people. They also collected Tk 8,500 from each, telling them that additional money is required for medical tests at a diagnostic centre in Dhaka, a source told this newspaper, quoting Raja's statement.

ADC Towhidul said Hasan used to hire eight to 10 security guard for Tk 2,000 each per day. "We got complaints that Hasan has taken around Tk 6 crore from different victims so far, but we are yet to detect any of his vaults and financial accounts."

"We are planning to write to Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit regarding Hasan's transaction details," he added.